We took the rising star to London’s favourite Christmas fair, where she sipped on hot chocolate, talked through her new EP and told us all about those industry plant allegations
“Do you want some?” asks Hemlocke Springs, extending a hand to reveal one of those wheels of Hubba Bubba strawberry gum in her palm. The gesture feels particularly fitting, especially from an artist who combines bubblegum aesthetics and an 80s synth pop sensibility – but it’s also just kind and endearing, as Hemlocke Springs naturally is. We’re on the platform at Victoria tube station, on our way to Winter Wonderland, a Great British Tradition that needs some clarification for this visiting American. When I explain that ‘people often go there as a bit of a joke, but often end up having a good time, and it’s also a cliché winter date spot, but it’s also definitely quite cringe if you think about it, but really fun if you don’t, and visits have become so ironic people don’t even know if they’re even joking anymore’ – Springs responds with a very polite “oh!”
The musician is in town for her sold-out show in Camden, and while we’re walking to Hyde Park, she acknowledges the crazy year that she’s had. As the story goes, Spring’s song “Girlfriend” blew up on TikTok at the end of 2022, a breezy synth-pop track that addresses the grey area that comes with labelling relationships. While it’s difficult to picture Springs as anything other than a musician, when this all happened she was completing a master’s in Medical Informatics, with plans to study towards a PhD in Biology afterwards – music had always been a personal pleasure, but she never saw it as something that could be a career. Despite these internal protestations, Spring’s online virality snowballed, and she could no longer escape the fate of becoming a Professional Musician. After her TikTok following grew to over 300,000 in 2023, she released her debut EP going…going…GONE! this October, expanding on the 80s mall-rat sound she’d originally established on “Girlfriend”.
In the conversation below we catch up with the singer about the pros and cons of blowing up on TikTok, growing up in suburban North Carolina, and the freedom she found in finally becoming a musician.
Hey Hemlocke! How did you find your first Winter Wonderland?
Hemlocke Springs: I’ve been to this park before, but they were only just building it. We couldn’t get in, so I was wondering what the hype was? Now I know what the hype is about! It’s good. I got some great hot cocoa. The haunted mansion was scary. My dormant heart needed to speed up a little bit. And the lights – even though it’s still afternoon, it’s beautiful. Very beautiful!
Would you say this has been your biggest year yet?
Hemlocke Springs: Yeah. In terms of everything that’s happened – definitely. I started touring and performing for the first time. We released an EP. It was crazy. It was the first time for me actually doing those things, so it was bound to be like, a year.
Where did the name Hemlocke Springs come from?
Hemlocke Springs: I did a random name generator because I was afraid when I was going on TikTok – I didn’t want my parents to find me. So I did that and I’m stuck with it, but I do like the name. It came up as Hemlock without the ‘e’, but you know how Lorde has the ‘e’ on her name? It looks cool. I was like, ‘I wanna be cool!’ So I put the ‘e’ on the end thinking it would be, but I don’t know. I don’t think I’m as cool as Lorde.
Why would your parents not want to find you on TikTok?
Hemlocke Springs: Oh gosh! Particularly my mom, they were never the social media type of people. I didn’t want them looking me up and finding something that I don’t want them to find, so I changed it. My mom’s a teacher, my dad goes in and out of jobs – he was a mechanic and is now self-employed. Not really a musical family! Nothing really to grasp at. So I just wanted [music] to be my own side thing, with no wandering eyes on it. Again, I ate my words – my parents now know everything. It be like that, what can I say.
“I do get the ‘industry plant’ thing, and I honestly understand” – Hemlocke Springs
So your parents had regular jobs and weren’t connected to the industry?
Hemlocke Springs: No! [Laughs] Is that what you thought?
I mean I didn’t think you were a nepo baby or anything, just maybe had more of a musical family.
Hemlocke Springs: I do get the ‘industry plant’ thing, and I honestly understand.
People say that to you?
Hemlocke Springs: Yeah totally. I read something, a comment that’s still under the ‘Girlfriend’ music video. It said something like ‘follow the money: She did something with this person, then she did something with this person, she has an NDA to this label.’ They connected it all, and I’m like, ‘oh, that’s crazy.’ It actually made so much sense – it’s not true, but I understand [why people might think that].
This person mapped out your whole planting process in a YouTube comment?
Hemlocke Springs: Yeah, it was crazy! My friends were having a field day when they saw it, like, ‘wow, look at you go! It makes so much sense.’ Reading it I was thinking, ‘Am I an industry plant?’ But no, I’m just randomly here. I’m a rando.
You know something’s going right when you’re already getting industry plant allegations.
Hemlocke Springs: Yeah! I wouldn’t have waited if I were one. I would have gone earlier. Why would I wait till 25? Why would I have gone to college? But it’s really funny seeing it all.
So you’re from North Carolina, how has that influenced your musical tastes?
Hemlocke Springs: When you’re in a small, suburban white town you don’t get out often and you stay inside. Um, let’s see – I’m trying to come up with good things! I will say, I think if I were in a city, I wouldn’t be alone with my thoughts. I feel like when I was in North Carolina, not that I feel alone, but I’m able to be alone, and be in a space that I can just be with my thoughts. Sometimes it’s a good thing, sometimes it’s a bad thing, but it definitely helps foster the creativity of things. I was in my room often, especially during COVID, because I went back home in the pandemic. I was just in my room – there’s nothing else to do. So I’m just gonna do music, maybe look outside my window, see some trees, then get back to music.
What kind of music did you grow up listening to?
Hemlocke Springs: Honestly, church music up until middle school because that’s all that I was exposed to. Then in middle school I started listening to electronic music, and then I started getting into more 80s in high school, and then K-pop, and honestly, that’s carried me until now.
You mentioned that you’re into electronic music, but also 80s stuff, and K-Pop. For you, do those different genres have a common thread that connects them together?
Hemlocke Springs: For me, I feel like all the genres I listen to, you have these song structures. You see the song structure in a pop song, and then you compare it to an electronic song, or you compare it to a rock song. How I’m explaining it is making it sound like it’s formulaic, but there is a formula to it I guess. I listen a lot to lyrical stuff and I listen a lot to how the verses connect with one another, and honestly I think for me it’s really similar throughout every genre.
What’s the story of your song ‘Girlfriend’, how did it feel when it blew up?
Hemlocke Springs: I was genuinely confused because at that point the advice given to me was to promote on Tik Tok – ‘just keep on teasing the song.’ For a month I teased the chorus. Then I was tired of teasing the chorus, so teased a different part of the song. As soon as I teased the second part, I watched it blow up over two days. Fans were like, ‘oh my gosh, when’s the song coming out?’ I’m like ‘I’ve been at it for a month! What are you talking about! It comes out in two days!’
It was really crazy. It was really crazy how everything snowballed. I honestly don’t know how it happened. I wasn’t prepared at all. I was still in school. I was mildly confused.
“TikTok is definitely a double edged sword. I feel like I can’t say much about it, only because that’s how I got my start, but I’m definitely feeling the sword part – the sharp part” – Hemlock Springs
How do you feel about blowing up on TikTok? Is it a double-edged sword?
Hemlocke Springs: It’s definitely a double-edged sword. I feel like I can’t say much about it, only because that’s how I got my start, but I’m definitely feeling the sword part – the sharp part. I just want to keep continuing what I do. In my mind, I know I never made songs for TikTok. At least for me, I don’t feel like that’s the best way to do it. For me, I make a song because I like the song, and I promote it on this platform, and just think about it like that. Keep it simple, and don’t think too much about it.
For the new EP, was there a starting point?
Hemlocke Springs: I wish! Things would have been so much easier. No, I made songs and then I kept on changing everything. Seven-eighths of the way, I had my whole EP list and then I was like, ‘scrap that, it’s gonna be different.’ It was a tumultuous process because I genuinely didn’t know where it was going until I got into it. It was about to come out in two months and I’m like, ‘oh, I think I know what I want it to be now! I think I know where I'm going!’ So no starting point, just kind of went headfirst.
What were some of the main songwriting inspirations for the EP?
Hemlocke Springs: Definitely a lot of Grimes, a lot of Kate Bush. Honestly, Tears for Fears. I started listening to them and I just liked their style and so I was like, ‘how can I combine all of these together.’ It just happened – like things just happened. This is what I listened to a lot of, and I guess through listening to these artists a lot, this EP is what came out of it.
When I listened to the EP it evoked an 80s mall rat kind of vibe – is that the intention?
Hemlocke Springs: In my mind I want to capture what I’m feeling. And I guess that’s how I’m feeling. I like things to be a little bit intense. Sometimes I want it to be pounding in your head.
What do you think attracts you to that era?
Hemlocke Springs: I think I’m just a big synth person. I love synths a lot. And I love the maximalism of it all. Minimalist beats are cool, and I like that too, but I just gravitate more towards a lot happening, but when it comes together in such a cool way. There’s definitely elements of nostalgia attached to it, but it’s mainly just liking a lot of things happening at once. That’s what it sounds like in my mind when I listen to music from that era.
I feel like that maximalism is also expressed in your personal style
Hemlocke Springs: I’ve been called quirky a lot. I didn’t realise I was a ‘quirky’ person – I just kind of grab what’s in my closet. I thought I was a normal-ass girl! But I guess when I was in school, I kept it toned down. Now I think, ‘I’m an artist now, I can do whatever I want!’ I can bleach my eyebrows, I can wear really out-there wigs.
Was there a sense of freedom that came with being an artist?
Hemlocke Springs: Yeah, for sure. I guess what’s inside can match what’s outside a little bit better now.
So is there a distinction between Hemlocke and Naomi?
Hemlocke Springs: I feel like Hemlocke is a bit more intense than Naomi is. That’s selling me short, too. Oh, my God, I don't know. I’m a bit more quiet than Hemlocke is. Hemlocke is a bit more out there, but Naomi, honestly, I can stay in my room for decades. I would say Hemlocke is a bit more loud than Naomi, but I feel like she has to be. It feels weird talking about me like this.
going…going…GONE! EP is out now on AWAL